Twin Ports by Trolley

Twin Ports by Trolley - Aaron Sachs , University of MN press

Who knew Trolleys could be so interesting.  It is true that there are some chapters, especially at the beginning that are for RR and Trolley buffs and require some skimming before getting to the chapters that will entertain most readers.  This is a complete history, examining all the various routes and vehicles.  Even if you do not care about which line runs to Woodland Park you can still enjoy the historic photos such as the snowy and seemingly wild landscape that passes in front of the Northland Country Club.

You will learn that the cars carried groceries and goods until frustration set in when customers were not there to claim them.  You will see mules, buses, trolley cars, tracks, and support buildings and catch glimpses of our fascinating past.  Amusement Parks on Park Point, Trolley’s as hearses, Trolley’s carrying firefighters.  

There are stories of strikes and a story of customers taking over a trolley and motorman to force the company to send another car.  We learn about Halloween pranks, rails across the ice, the Incline, and even robberies as we find our way through the neighborhoods of the Twin Ports.

Duluth Tribune - 1956

"One thing can be said for the mules that pulled Duluth's first street cars in 1883. Neither the Superior Street mud nor the deep winter snow stalled their progress.  If the going got bad enough, four mules were hitched up to the dinky cars and away they went through the drifts and swirling snow."

p21

"Able bodied men and boys swung on and off the cars as they rolled along.  Besides saving time, this practice conserved the horses' limited energy, since starting a loaded car required considerably more effort than keeping it moving.

"No one thought to change this practice, and now people were attempting to board and alight at much higher speeds.  The result was numerous injuries, including amputations."

p22

"Horsecar driver, like all teamsters, had always occupied the open front platform and were exposed to all kinds of weather.  Following electrification, the dramatic increase in speed suddenly subjected them to unprecedented wind chills, creating miserable and often dangerous working conditions.  One motorman in St. Paul actually froze to death at the controls."

Solace of Open Spaces

Nancy Lo

History of the Environment assignment 3

10/30/14

“The Solace of Open Spaces,” Gretel Ehrlich, 1985

Gretel Ehrlich’s inauguration into life on the high plains of Wyoming, and her ensuing deep resonance with the state, is the essence of “The Solace of Open Spaces.” Life there is hard – the six-month-long winters are so brutal that livestock die where they stand and when people try to leave their homes, they’re thwarted by snow-packed roads and have to turn back. And then when winter finally ends, “spring weather is capricious and mean. It snows, then blisters with heat.” (Ehrlich, 1985, p. 7) Wyoming is a state of wind and dust. Sheep herding, which Ehrlich is thrust into when another herder abruptly quits, is relentless and grueling. She came to Wyoming to make a film about sheep ranching, and while there her partner died. She withdrew from life, but Wyoming’s rhythms and vastness were therapeutic, and she found herself at home.

“Life on the sheep ranch woke me up. The vitality of the people I was working with flushed out what had become a hallucinatory rawness inside me. … The arid country was a clean slate. Its absolute indifference steadied me.” (p. 4)

Ehrlich’s descriptions of Wyoming’s landscape, animals, weather and people are unfalteringly honest – and through that honesty her love for the state and its inhabitants reveals itself. This is her personal account of a lifestyle and a state that few know. (This choosing of the lesser-knowns seems to be a trend of hers – she later spent years in Greenland, portraying its desolation and icy beauty and developing solidarity with the Inuit people and their diminishing culture.) From Wyoming’s starkness and simplicity emerges a deep connection to the land. A combination of resilience and stubbornness ties Wyoming’s residents to the state.

The title of her book rings true. This “wide-open country” (Ehrlich, 1985, p. 60) where she can see for “hundreds of miles in every direction” (p. 60) provides just the anti-nurturing nurturing that Ehrlich’s wounded heart needs. Judith Moore wrote for the New York Times: “‘The Solace of Open Spaces’ depends upon none of the cheap effects – purple sunset, the face of God in still water – that breed what theologians call ‘cheap grace,’ salvation too easily won.” (1985, n.p.) Ehrlich’s grief and suffering gradually ease, but “what Wyoming gives her comes hard won.” (1985, n.p.) After meeting and marrying a man whom she met at a John Wayne film festival in Cody, Wy., she wrote, “‘here’s to the end of loneliness,’ … not believing such a thing could come true. But it did, and nothing prepared me for the sense of peace I felt.” (Ehrlich, 1985, p. 87)

Ehrlich devotes a significant portion of “Solace” to Wyoming’s people and their complexity, and through that portrayal she gives commentary on all people: “We have only to look at the houses we build to see how we build against space, the way we drink against pain and loneliness. We fill up space as if it were a pie shell, with things whose opacity further obstructs our ability to see what is already there.” (1985, p. 15) She uses nature to make comparisons: “We are often like rivers: careless and forceful, timid and dangerous, lucid and muddied, eddying, gleaming, still.” (p. 84) And she celebrates animals’ ability to co-exist with humans: “Because they have the ability to read our involuntary tics and scents, we’re transparent to them and thus exposed – we’re finally ourselves.” (p. 64)

 Wyoming’s population at the time was only 470,000, and loneliness and its effect on people is a recurring theme: “Men become hermits; women go mad. Cabin fever explodes into suicides.” (Ehrlich, 1985, p. 13). Wyoming is a land of extremes, which extends to the human relationships. Isolation and loneliness are countered by “teamwork on cold nights during calving … [that] creates a profound camaraderie.” (p. 73)

The lushness of her language creates images that are almost touchably vivid: “Thoughts, bright as frostfall, skate through our brains. In winter, consciousness looks like an etching.” (Ehrlich, 1985, p. 74) Ehrlich absorbs the land’s simplicity and comfort, and her pen spreads steady respect on the page like honey. “She weaves an inspiring and memorable relationship between the individual and nature. … [This relationship] has long been influential in the world of writing; Ehrlich explores this bond in a new light through the power of writing itself.” (Scowsmith, 2013, n.p.) Wyoming isn’t just an expansive swath of land that we experience with our eyes. It’s a place we feel, breathe, smell, taste and absorb, with Ehrlich as our guide.

People in Wyoming adapt to the environment and work with it because there is no choice. “Nature is not something which the inhabitants of SOS live with, nature is something they have to endure.” (Jalali, 2005, n.p.) It dictates the lives of everyone and everything in the book. Ehrlich exposes the reader to nature in its extremes. We feel the bitter cold and the oppressive heat, revel in the satisfaction of a hard day’s work, and witness the imprint of man and domestic animals on the parched earth. Ehrlich writes, “The water I ushered over hard ground becomes one drink of grass.” (1985, p. 90) She shapes our perception of the environment, and argues for using its resources ethically. In an interview Ehrlich said, “We are entering the Anthropocene, a time when the changing climate will cause much devastation. … Soon our planet will not be the same, and human survival will be difficult.” (T., 2013., n.p.) Through literature, she shines a light on the places that need saving.

I first read “Solace” more than 20 years ago, and reading it again feels like being pulled into a full-body embrace. Newsday wrote “Ehrlich’s gorgeous prose is as expansive as a Wyoming vista.” (1985, n.p.), and that description couldn’t be more true. In describing the transition from autumn to winter, Ehrlich writes, “We feel what the Japanese call ‘aware’ – an almost untranslatable word meaning something  like ‘beauty tinged with sadness.’” (Ehrlich, 1985, p. 127) What I felt reading “Solace” was ‘aware.’

References

Ehrlich, G. (1985). The Solace of Open Spaces. New York: Viking Penguin Inc.

Jalali, S. (2005). Oppressing Nature: A Study of Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces. Retrieved October 27, 2014, from http://lnu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:205169/FULLTEXT01

Moore, J. (1985, December 1). What a Mountain Is. New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/01/books/what-a-mountain-is.html

Scowsmith, K. (2013, August 12). The Immensity of Small Things: A Literary Review of Gretel Ehrlich’s Solace of Open Spaces. The Haberdasher. Retrieved October 27, 2014, from http://lehab.org/2013/08/12/the-immensity-of-small-things-a-literary-review-of-gretel-ehrlichs-solace-of-open-spaces/

T., J. (2013, March 18) The Q&A: Gretel Ehrlich Embracing Impermanence. The Economist. Retrieved October 27, 2014, from http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/03/qa-gretel

Of Wolves and Men by Barry Holstun Lopez

Review By Amber Taylor 

She is enrolled in my Environmental history course

This is one of my favorite books

It has been out a long time (1978) but still remains an important classic

I chose to read Of Wolves and Men because I have always been fascinated with wolves and their plight on this Earth. A few years ago I read the book Arctic Dreams by Lopez and knew I could count on him to give a detailed, informational, and realistic outlook on wolves and their historically complicated, tense, and mysterious relationship with mankind. “In the past twenty years, biologists have given us a new wolf, one separated from folklore. But they have not found the whole truth…No one—not biologists, not Eskimos, not backwoods hunters, not naturalist writers—knows why wolves do what they do” (Lopez, 1978, p. 4).

Although Lopez travels the world in order to research cultures, lands, and stories for his books, he always returns to his home in Oregon in order to write about what he has seen and experienced. He brings a unique viewpoint to his writings and “[they] have frequently been compared to those of Henry David Thoreau, as he brings a depth of erudition to the text by immersing himself in his surroundings, deftly integrating his environmental and humanitarian concerns” (Steven Barclay Agency, 2014).

In April, 2010, Lopez was a guest on PBS’s “Bill Moyer’s Journal, where they discussed spirit, the human condition, and nature. Lopez describes his inspiration as nature, but not his subject. “I'm not writing about nature. I'm writing about humanity. And if I have a subject, it is justice. And the rediscovery of the manifold way in which our lives can be shaped by the recovery of a sense of reverence for life" (PBS, 2010).

Lopez begins with a thorough and scientific overview of the wolf, describing in great detail their origins, social structures, modes of communication, hunting tactics, and territories. My favorite part of this entire book lies in the first few pages, when Lopez begins with the words “Imagine a wolf moving through the northern woods” (Lopez, p. 9). What follows is an incredible narrative that follows this wolf through his day’s endeavors. We watch as the wolf encounters other animals, stops to smell the air on a passing breeze, and joins his beautiful harmonics with those of his sister, who is over a mile away, before being reunited with her in a playful and joyous reunion. Throughout this narrative, the reader is able to sense the important role this wolf plays in his surroundings.

               The wolf is tied by subtle threads to the woods he moves through. His fur                carries seeds that will fall off, effectively dispersed, along the trail some miles   from where they first caught in his fur. And miles distant is a raven perched             on the ribs of a caribou the wolf helped kill ten days ago...A smart                snowshoe hare that eluded the wolf and left him exhausted when he was                a pup has been dead a year now, food for an owl. The den in which he was                born one April evening was home to porcupines last winter. (p. 10)

The rest of the first chapter is dedicated to giving an in-depth and interesting account of wolves: how they have adapted to their different environments, what their current (as of the late 1970’s) status is in different parts of the world, the genetics and nomenclature of the various wolf subspecies, body and coat descriptions, and physical abilities such as endurance and agility.

               Wolves spend an average of eight to ten hours of every twenty-four on the        move, mostly the crepuscular hours. They travel great distances and have                tremendous stamina. One observer followed two wolves who broke trail                through five feet of snow for 22 miles in British Columbia. The animals                paused in their tracks, but never laid down to rest. (p. 25)

Other topics discussed in this chapter are pack and litter sizes, the raising of pups, and the many ways that wolves are killed and occasionally have been found to survive the harsh realities of their ways of life. Wolves are often parasitized, get cancer, susceptible to a number of diseases, suffer from malnutrition, and are injured during hunts, especially by moose, but do not always succumb to these maladies. “The point of all this is that the woods is a hard place to get on, and yet the wolf survives” (p. 30).

Social structure and communication are the focus of chapter two, and the differences between males and females, alpha and beta, and discipline are highlighted. Lopez points out that much of what has been observed and studied in the greatest detail is of captive wolves, but fieldwork has been able to confirm these findings in many cases.

               The wolf is a social animal; it depends for its survival on cooperation, not                strife…The social structure of a wolf pack is dynamic—subject to change,                especially during the breeding season—and may by completely reversed                during periods of play. It is important during breeding, feeding, travel, and       territorial maintenance, and seems to serve a purpose when wolves gather to           reassure each other of the positive aspects of their life-style as reflected in      this social order, one that enhances survival by collective hunting and natural      population control. (p. 33)

Wolves have a vast array of communications, including howling, which has numerous pitches and tones in itself, whining, squeaks, growling, posture signaling, facial gestures, submissiveness, scent marking, fighting, and ousting members of the pack.

               There has been more speculation about the nature and function of the wolf’s howl than the music…of any other animal. It is a rich, captivating sound, a                seductive echo that can moan on eerily and raise the hair on your head.                Wolves apparently howl to assemble the pack…pass on an alarm…locate                each in a storm or in unfamiliar territory, and communicate across great                distances. (p. 38)

Chapter three addresses the hunting and territory of wolves. “The wolf spends perhaps one-third of his life in pursuit of food. It is a task for which he evolved and to which he is well suited” (p. 54). Wolves will commonly take the young, sick or injured when hunting, and “vary their tactics slightly to hunt each species of prey, adapting primarily to terrain and somewhat less to the sort of prey” (p.59). Wolf territories are fluid and depend on many factors, such as prey availability, seasons, and denning sites.

              

               A pack at the edge of its territory might permit a wounded prey animal to                escape if it flees across that border into another pack’s territory. A wolf pack     is repelled by the fresh scent marks of a neighboring pack. The boundary is           defined from both sides of the fence; that is not an idea to be taken lightly is           evidenced by the number of trespassing wolves that are killed. (p. 64)

As he wraps up part one, Lopez writes about the unique and varying relationships wolves have with the other species. Using caribou as both prey and snowplows, feasting on other animals’ kills, using fox burrows for their dens, and their rather odd social repertoire with ravens. “The wolf seems to have few relationships with other animals that could be termed purely social, though he apparently takes pleasure in the company of ravens” (p. 67). From these descriptions of normal ecological relationships, Lopez introduces us to the one relationship that has never ceased to cause strife for the wolf: “the wolf’s most important and dangerous relationship must be his relationship with man” (p. 69).

The brilliant narratives about the wolf as a complex, intelligent, beautiful, whimsical, mysterious, and social creature that is an important top predator in its environment serve as a foundation for the rest of the book. Lopez describes the numerous ways in which it has been misunderstood and persecuted throughout history. He seeks to bring an awareness to the plight of the wolf, attempting to weave an understanding of their significance and presence in the natural world.

Throughout folklore of the Middle Ages, religious writings, the settlement of North America, and the more recent history of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, wolves have been described as cowardly, bloodthirsty, evil, killing machines. They have been condemned by ranchers, religion, hunters, and even children’s stories. The stories of how and why wolves have been killed throughout history were very hard for me to read. It was not just killing, it was also a torturous massacre.

I will not go in to depth about these stories as they are disheartening in that I am sure some of these practices continue today. It is disturbing that for thousands of years people were so full of hate for another living creature about which they knew nothing. What they did know, however, was fear of the unknown.

               [Killing wolves] is the violent expression of a terrible assumption: that men

               have the right to kill other creatures not for what they do but for what we

               fear they may do. Killing wolves has to do with fear based on superstitions…                                                                                                                                          

               At a more general level it had to do, historically, with feelings about            

               wilderness. To celebrate wilderness was to celebrate the wolf; to want an

               end to wilderness and all it stood for was to want the wolf’s head. (p.140)

Wolves were and continue to be killed for numerous reasons, including protection of livestock and domestic animals, bounties, hunting and sport, saving wildlife that is unable to defend themselves (yes, people actually believe this), and for nothing more than someone feels like doing it.

               It was against a backdrop of…taming wilderness, the law of vengeance, protection of property, an inalienable right to decide the fate of all animals without incurring moral responsibility, and the strongly American conception of man as the protector of defenseless creatures, that the wolf became the enemy. (p. 148)

On a positive note, Lopez goes in to great detail about the Eskimos and Native Americans cultures and their relationships with wolves. They have a deep reverence and respect for these creatures that goes beyond the basics of their biology and hunting abilities. Their kinship with wolves has been born from keen observation and an understanding and awareness of the wolf’s place in nature, their environment, and the universe as a whole. These cultures seek to learn from the wolf, its interactions with the land and each other, how they hunt and work together, and their spiritual connectedness to their surroundings.

               We do not know very much at all about animals. We cannot understand them except in terms of our own needs and experiences. And to approach them solely in terms of the Western imaginations is, really, to deny the animal. It behooves us to visit with a people with whom we share a planet and an interest in wolves but who themselves come from a different time-space and who, so far as we know, are very much closer to the wolf than we will ever be. (p. 86)

                

Although the optimistic viewpoints on wolves are increasing, there are still an overwhelming number of people that see them as a nuisance animal that has no logical or necessary place in this world. The mystery of an animal or part of nature should be admired, not feared. Everything has its place and is intimately interconnected.

Hopefully, with continued education, and books such as Of Wolves and Men, these outlooks can be gradually altered and overcome. In his epilogue, Lopez leaves us with a thought provoking and impactful statement:

               To allow mystery, which is to say to yourself, ‘There could be more, there                could be things we don’t understand,’ is not to damn knowledge. It is to take      a wider view. It is to permit yourself an extraordinary freedom: someone else       does not have to be wrong in order that you may be right. (p.284)

The following are excerpts from other reviews of Of Wolves and Men:

              

               Of Wolves and Men is not just about wolves, but about how little is actually known about wolves—in other words, Lopez is interested in the mythologies that circulate around wolves. And, of course, humans are the creators of mythologies, so the book is just as much about humans. The book is also about how humans visualize wolves: Lopez’s writing is woven around visual culture, from historical photographs, to an Eskimo print of wolves eating a caribou, to illustrations of the wolf and the crane attached to the eponymous Aesopian fable. (Schaberg, 2010)

              

               Of Wolves and Men has helped raise our awareness of animals as fellow

               sentient beings with whom we share our planet and sharpened our

               understanding of how all creatures play essential roles in the spectacular,

               infinitely complex dance of life. (Seaman, 2004)

References:

Lopez, Barry. (1978). Of Wolves and Men. Touchstone, New York, NY.

PBS. (2010). Bill Moyer’s Journal: Barry Lopez. Retrieved November 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04302010/profile.html

Schaberg, Christopher. (2010). What is Literature? Of Wolves and Men. Retreived November 2014 from http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2010/05/of-wolves-and-men.html

Seaman, Donna. (2004). Chicago Tribune. Perspectives on the Worlds of Wolves and Human Beings. Retrieved November 2014 from http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/Week-of-Mon-20040517/025231.html

Steven Barclay Agency. (2009-2014). Barry Lopez: National Book Award Winner,

Author of Arctic Dreams and Resistance. Retrieved November 2014 from

http://barclayagency.com/lopez.html#

Mississippi Solo by Eddy Harris.

What a grand adventure and such excellent writing.  I could not stop reading.  Check out the website too http://www.eddyharris.com/books/mississippi.htm

Since I have paddled the upper 1000+ miles and I have been on boats all the way down to New Orleans the places and sights were familiar and like an album in my head, but the experience that Eddy has was singular in many ways.

The river has numerous challenges - wind, current, meanders, barges, ships, boats, snow, rain, and rising and falling levels - that affect the most accomplished paddlers. This is a river that Mark Twain struggled to define in Life on the Mississippi and even with all the levees, locks, dams, wing dams, and control structures that give the sense of human's being in charge - it will always be the river that makes the final decision.  It is relentless and timeless. Into this maelstrom Eddy chose to test himself.

He did not own or know how to canoe when he began.  He just knew he wanted to do this and as all adventurers can attest - explaining why you are going to do something is more difficult that tell the story afterward.

It is a voyage of personal discovery.  Eddy learns the canoe, becomes one with the river and shares many of the people he encountered along the way.  His adventure is cloaked in philosophical enlightenment.

I can only suggest that you grab a cup of coffee and slip in to his adventure.  Better yet - sit by the river while you read!

Here is an excerpt.
"  A red fox scurried down to the edge of the water and ran along the shore. He kept pace with me and seemed to be watching me, keeping up with me. I had never seen a fox in the wild before. I didn't want him to ever go away. I didn't want this day to go away.

This feeling. Just a few years longer. Just a few more hours, minutes, moments. I hope that when I die I have those words on my lips: just a minute more. Not out of fear of death or out of wanting to live on and on, but because I will have been so thrilled with this life with all its ugliness and pain which does not in the least overshadow the warmth and glowing of peace and joy and moments like this morning on the river, and I will ask for just a few more minutes of it. The fox knew I was there and kept looking my way. Agile and funny little creature. And then he was gone."

Hancock, MI - one of the Images series

Images of America Hancock

By John Haeussler

Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, S. C.

2014

The Images of America Series is a wonderful collection for families with tie to the local area – it is like a genealogy of a place.  The interest is local, but also fun for tourists and historians.  In the Hancock book we get a glimpse of the area that was a true frontier landscape where mining was just as intense as the gold fields out west.  This neighbor across the lake to Houghton had an isolated existence compared to Houghton where trails did not cross over water.  It was a railroad hub without access to the rest of the state.

This is the story of mining as well as a town, of fires, strikes, and changing times with some particular gems like the Ringling Brothers elephants going down Quincy and the inside of the harness and buggy shop.  My favorite is the Mitchell’s Furniture Store with chairs hanging from the ceiling. You can find vehicles from across the decades and a changing array of storefronts, but the most fun for me was in the recreational photos and the simple fun that combined outside and exercise.

Scoop - the story of West's Dairy and Hayward, WI

“Scoop: Notes From a Small Ice Cream Shop” by Jeff Miller

What a joy ride – Jeff Miller and his partner Dean decide to leave their world spanning careers and move from London England.  Where would you put the lawyer and executive who have worked in Hong Kong and achieved great success in their careers?  Well Hayward Wisconsin of course – they do have the international Birkebeiner ski race there.

Jeff has a wit that makes every chapter fly and the humor is not sarcastic or mean, I laughed and laughed because it was so true.  These are the characters I meet in the small towns I have lived in.  They buy a dairy, West’s Dairy and ice cream shop and in addition to a building that is in desperate need of remodeling they have an old vehicle, old equipment and an old employee, Buck, who serves to dispense his own brand of wisdom while avoiding the dispensing of ice cream.

It is reminiscent of Bill Bryson’s writing and holds together from beginning to end.  They bring their London accents, their gay lifestyle, and a wonderful desire to adapt to both the dairy and the remodeling of  Lumberman’s Mansion B&B on Shue’s Pond. The reader is the recipient of a ride back in time to small town America where Santa’s Sleigh can be seen in the mouth of a giant Musky and the community celebrations are Americana at its best.

Meet the people, meet the author, and send me an ice cream cone – I am starting to crave a cone of  “Almost Sinful.”  Check out their website for a fun video  http://www.westshaywarddairy.com/

Visit Sunny Chernobyl – Andrew Blackwell

I can only call Andrew Blackwell an environmental voyeur.  He is not content to read about bad things – he has to see them.  He knows of Chernobyl, but he has to have his meter tell him he is being cooked by the nuclear energy that is still all around. 

Unlike most of us who travel to pristine areas to avoid the ugliness that is being foisted on the world, his vacations, if you can call them that, are in the tar sands.  He goes to these places knowing that are bad, but he does not go to preach.  He takes us along and lets us look over his shoulder; shake our heads and wonder – what next.

His writing is descriptive and vivid, “…rose the Syncrude upgrading plant, the flame-belching doppelganger of Disney’s Enchanted Kingdom, built of steel towers and twisting pipes, crested with gas flares and plumes of stream.”  And his writing also conveys a dark, foreboding vision of the future that is filtered through these awful and apocalyptic.   Then as we move through the dark areas of polluted earth on this bizarre trip our Dante guide lets us listen to the nonsense that lets people accept their fate and the fate of their land – “I think that dirty oil thing comes from a lobbying group in Saudi.”

Resignation is obvious in a statement from a drunken worker   “Lemme Tell You something.  By the time I’m fifty, I know – I don’t guess, I know – I’m gonna have some kind of cancer.”  But he is not going to quit.  He is stuck in our make a living world where the cost of survival is the debt of education, acceptance of contributing to destructive acts, or the sacrifice of years of health. 

This is not a descent into Hell, rather it is a horizontal path that zigs and zags with destinations like the massive gathering of trash in the midst of the ocean – the vortex of human waste,   coal mines of China and the sewage of India.

But our guide has a strange affliction – he wants to see the rosy aspect of each corner of Hell.  He wants us to see happy people content in their apartments with electronic parts boiling in solder and emitting toxic fumes, he wants to see the soy farm intrusions in to the rain forest with much more innocence that some might feel. 

Perhaps this joyride into the horrors of pollution is really a reminder that each Hell hole is created to serve the demands of those of us who want to live in a clean and beautiful environment.  That behind Yellowstone and the other magnificent parks lays a consuming matrix of people and industry that is leaving a mark throughout the earth and each tendril of the pollution center reaches in to the center of humankind throughout the planet.  They are really not the worst or the most; they are just artifacts within hundreds of sores from the cancer of our consumption.

In a way the author’s enjoyable romp also downplays the serious situations.  After reading about the coal mining in China chapter I thought that this review in NYTimes was a more appropriate look at the serious situation. China’s Poisonous Waterways  By SHENG KEYIAPRIL 4, 2014

“BEIJING — Over the past few years, trips back to my home village, Huaihua Di, on the Lanxi River in Hunan Province, have been clouded by news of deaths — deaths of people I knew well. Some were still young, only in their 30s or 40s. When I returned to the village early last year, two people had just died, and a few others were dying.

“My father conducted an informal survey last year of deaths in our village, which has about 1,000 people, to learn why they died and the ages of the deceased. After visiting every household over the course of two weeks, he and two village elders came up with these numbers: Over 10 years, there were 86 cases of cancer. Of these, 65 resulted in death; the rest are terminally ill. Most of their cancers are of the digestive system. In addition, there were 261 cases of snail fever, a parasitic disease, that led to two deaths.

“The Lanxi is lined with factories, from mineral processing plants to cement and chemical manufacturers. For years, industrial and agricultural waste has been dumped into the water untreated. I have learned that the grim situation along our river is far from uncommon in China.

“The nation has more than 200 “cancer villages,” small towns like mine blanketed with factories where cancer rates have risen far above the national average. (Some researchers say there are more than 400 such villages.) Last year the Ministry of Environmental Protection acknowledged the problem of “cancer villages” for the first time, but this is of little comfort to my parents’ neighbors and millions like them around the country.

“More than 50 percent of China’s rivers have disappeared altogether, and few of the surviving waterways are not completely polluted. Some 280 million Chinese people drink unsafe water, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Nearly half of the country’s rivers and lakes carry water that is unfit even for human contact.

And China’s cancer mortality rate has soared, climbing 80 percent in the last 30 years. About 3.5 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year, 2.5 million of whom die. Rural residents are more likely than urban residents to die of stomach and intestinal cancers, presumably because of polluted water. State media reported on one government inquiry that found 110 million people across the country reside less than a mile from a hazardous industrial site.”

There is more, but the picture is clear.   He literally ends up in shit – that is, he finishes in the over populated country called India (which translates to river) and it is the country of rivers – religious rivers in fact.  But the growth of population has another graph – the growth of municipal waste – merde.  It is a country without the controls and systems to handle run away population (something the author does not mention directly) and consequently the shite does not hit the fan – it fills the rivers and Krishna’s sacred river is an open sewer. 

There is much to think about – but the real lesson is that behind the places of beauty we have protected are places of ugly that are the result of our human choices, greed, and indifference. 

Back of Beyond - C J Box

I have been a fan of C J Box since I stumbled on his novels at the wonderful book store in downtown Cheyenne, WY.  I have enjoyed his primary character - the game warden but I was beginning to tire of the character - especially as the issues seemed to more and more center around his own family, a trend I am seeing in lots of writers recently.  So it was fun to have this crusty character who comes from a trashy family, is an alcoholic who definitely does not have it under control, steps outside of the rules, and generally is a screw up with the tenacity of a pit bull.

The mystery begins with a fire and what seems like accidental death, but the victim was Hoyt's sponsor in AA and thus we have the inevitable personal angle.  And it turns out it is a murder and the murderer will be on a horse trip in Yellowstone's back country which sets up lots of new situations - most beyond belief, but still entertaining.

And of course Hoyt's son is on the trip so the personal angle drives him to new heights of independence.  But the writing is really good, the story is a gripping one and the pace is outstanding.  In many ways this is my favorite Box story, but I still hope all the characters can get out of the personal relationship and back to just solving crimes.

March books - a summary

The Lost Battles by Jonathon Jones was my last book of the month and the most difficult.  It was a tough read that demanded my attention beyond my person art and Italian history interest.  Written by an art historian this is an greatly researched look at the rivalry of DaVinci and Michaelangelo - the superstars of this art and historic era and the story of Florence.

Fascinating in a way is that the art project that is the central theme of the book is gone.  We cannot see it.   We can get splashes of it from other artists like the sample that accompanies this review, but we cannot see it.

So we find our way through various historical alleys with other artwork, other artists and the story of Florence as we try to piece together this great confrontation, but I found myself seeking web sources to show me what we were talking about.  To that end the book succeeded in sending me seeking, but on the other end, I found myself wading through knowledge that is valuable but beyond my care.

If you have the right interests the book should be great, if you have curiosity like I do, it is a good struggle.  To the general reader I do not recommend it.

My favorite books of the month were my last two postings - The Stages by Thom Satterlee and  Badluck Way by Bryce Andrew.

Bossypants by Tina Fey had times of laughter and some poignant humor, but if you are not a television person - my weakness in this - a lot of the book did not have much value.  However, before I just pan it, I have to say there are some excellent passages that have great humor and justify wading through the materials that lack enlightenment or inspiration to a reader like me.

Chester Alan Arthur by Zachery Karabell that confirms the unscientific conclusion that Arthur is not a president worth remembering.  Still, he was a president, so we should know something.

Waldenwest by August Derleth was in another review - a 1961 classic of Wisconsin writing that had an excellent start but suffers from a half century of time.  It is fun to see some of the people and the philisophical parts are excellent, but once again the end did not come soon enough.

The Red Man's Bones by Benita Eisler is the perfect companion to the new biography of Curtis.  The combination of Curtis and Catlin are responsible for the images and knowledge we possess of the American Indian.  It would be my third favorite book of the month of variety.

The Hammer, a Sports Illustrated collection is truly a collection of the Sports Illustrated stories that span Hank Aaron's career as my favorite baseball player.  It not only is a reminder of the man and the complicated path he took from Negro Leagues to Icon, but also of the horrible racial undertones of our nation.  The stories are excellent and the book was a pleasure to read.

The Serpent's Tooth by Craig Johnson is a continuation of the excellent Longmire mystery series set in the Bighorns and the Crow reservation and this book did not disappoint a fan. I enjoy the personalities and I know the setting.  It is a good modern western and the series continues to keep me going at the same time that I am losing interest in other on going series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone where the character seems to be the reason the mystery was written.

Sherlock Holmes in America by Lellenberg, Greenberg, Stashower. deals with another of my old favorites - one who never seems to disappear from history or literature.  I am putting Doyle next to Shakespeare for the creation of a literature that goes beyond time and location to be a reference to all others that dabble in the same form of writing.  Why this has three editors is beyond me.  It is uneven, and often disappointing, but there are always those gems that make you glad that you took the time to read.

The Stages - thom satterlee

This novel was a good reminder of why you must invest in a book before deciding if you like it or not.  The difficulty of the topic made the first chapter difficult, by the second chapter I could not stop.  Once you gain the voice of the American translator who suffers from Aspergers it becomes a fascinating murder mystery in an exotic setting (at least for Americans).

This book is set in Copenhagen and the back story is the work of Storen Kierkegaard.  I love Copenhagen, but until this book I have not been motivated to learn about Denmark's most famous classic writer and philosopher.  Fortunately you are not required to understand his complex and multi-voice writing.

The person you follow through this story has to fight through the limitations of emotional expression and lack of ability to read the nuances of public discourse.  He is the American translator of Kierkegaard and is excellent at the job because it is what he can concentrate on and avoid confusing changes of schedule and routine.

However the director of the institute where he works, his first and only love, is murdered.  A manuscript is missing.  The translator was the last known person to be at the address before the murder and also finds another dead person along the way.

How does he sort this out, what does Kierkegaard say?  What is the strange clue that the murder victim left to him?  Can he sort out the clues, can he make things right after striking a policeman?  Can he find time for is Mozart deserts and hot dogs?

It is an adventure that spins through people and settings and arrives at a conclusion that may leave you clapping or unsatisfied.  Getting there is a wonderful literary journey.

Badluck Way by Bryce Andrews

What a pleasure - this is not a critical review - I loved the book and the pace.  Since I love the area, love wolves and wildness, understand the conflict of ranching and have a horse (my wife's) at home - the last of a wonderful line of horses this is a novel that had to appeal to me.  Perhaps I should say as an old Hopalong Cassidy fanatic I love the open range stories.

But this is a book that does not mindlessly enter in to any of the typical genres.  It is a western in that it is in the west and on a cattle ranch - but that is it.  It is not a wildlife and wilderness book even though the second main character is a wolf pack. It is a story of a man yearning for the basics of life - ranch hand, but carrying the environmental and modern attitudes that make blasting away every wolf a burden on his conscience.  It is a contrast in sympathy for the dying cattle who, of course, are being raised to be killed, and sympathy for the wolf, who are in fact breeding to kill.

It is not always pretty.  The answers are not always easy.  That is the tension of the true novel and it works.  I can feel the saddle, I looked into the dark forest ravine with the author, I anguished at the elk caught in the barbed wire, and I could sense how difficult it can be to cross lines and be with others who have such clear-cut opinions and actions when you are conflicted.

The writing in excellent and the conclusions are not simplified and glazed over.  Even on a ranch with conservation as a high priority the decisions can be sad and even brutal.  The writing is excellent and the desire to keep reading is strong.

February book notes

Another good reading month with some real gems.  Please note - I read books from all years - I am not partial to new releases.

My favorite was The Homesman, a book that is about to be a movie - I only hope the movie comes close to the quality of the writing.

This book depicts an aspect of American Life that I first encountered in Pioneer Women, a book that still haunts me.  Women brought west and following the dreams of their husbands, often just newly married.  They are brought to the prairie where wooden houses are replaced by sod structures and often just holes in the ground.

Without neighbors, without libraries or any form of entertainment the women are kept in these prisons where they are to provide sex, meals, and mothering.  The result is that many women lose their mines in the isolation, desolation, and suffering.  They raise their children without a true vision of a better life and watch children die in childbirth and from diseases and accidents.  It is a life that is truly helpless and hopeless and the author is able to convey this and the even more devastating image of how society, as it exists on the plains, reacts to the insanity that is visited on these former wives and mothers.

In this epic an unmarried woman takes on the task of taking these women to Iowa where they might find care and this requires journeyed across the prairie, carrying for the women, and responding to Indians, weather, and emergencies.

She tries to enlist one of the men, one of the husbands, but they are anxious for the women to leave and to be rid of the burden.  With no success she engages an outsider, a claim jumper, who is hated, about to be hung and without any visible salvation.

The insane women are pariahs to their families and their community and even to strangers.  The group cannot even find comfort by the fire of a wagon train.  There, the men fear that their women might glimpse a future for themselves.

The unlikely duo presents some enjoyable moments of exchange - the pragmatist loner and the optimistic care giver.  Their relationship plays out as they cross this lonely landscape and I cannot give away how it develops - that must be encountered through reading.  But all of the change, the women in their care have endured an unspeakable set of circumstances without real promise of better days and in their continuing presence we are reminded of circumstances that are hard to envision today unless we think of life in some remote desert areas where time has a different meaning.   The character focus is on the man and woman leading the trip, the background is the women, and the primary character is the demanding land.

My second favorite for the month was The Longest Road.  This is a true Road Trip from the furthest point south Florida to the Northernmost point in Alaska.  What makes is so enjoyable is the fact that it documents the people they encounter along the way and the conversations that portray the human attitudes and emotions of everyday people.  No politicians, no stars, no rich - just the people they encounter at lunch counters, and gas stations, and other locations that are part of a road trip.

Since Kate and I have done this on the Mississippi River and around Lake Superior we can relate to what Philip Caputo writes.  A former newsman, he and his wife are now seniors with a world of experiences of their own, but these do not intrude on the stories they tell.

Of course the Airstream they live in is part of the story too.  Jump aboard and take a ride with them.

I love the Craig Johnson series about the western sheriff - Longmire and The Dark Horse will not disappoint fans.  For the first time Longmire must go under cover - not something he is really good at and as such he is alone and the great supporting characters have less of a role, but we see more of Longmire in this story of murder that starts out with the murder solved.

The trouble is, Longmire does not like the solution.  He does not believe the woman's confession, and neither does the sheriff of the district where the murder was committed.

Longmire's need to put things right, puts him in the sites of a lot of unsavory characters and introduces us to a connection with a horse that sits at the heart of the mystery.



In the Wilderness by Kim Barnes is an excellent memoir of a woman raised in the woods of Oregon and Idaho by a family that does whatever work is needed to survive.  It is about a woman who faces the fiery force of evangelical preachers and churches, and numerous events that she must come to grips with to find her own place and history.

Lost Duluth was a gem.  A record of old building that no longer exist (and ones you will wish still did).  But the real value is in the stories that surround these buildings.   The people who would build monuments, their stories are the story of Duluth.

Fitgers is a similar book to Lost Duluth, but it captures the brewing history of the city and the downfall to the economy that was generated by the Prohibition era.  Micro-brewing is now filling these niches, but not with the magnificent structures of the past.

The Story of Earth by Robert Hazon was an excellent book of Earth history that captures the complexity of geology and the beauty of the planet in terms that paint pictures and enlighten the read to complex ideas.  It is also a warning that what we are doing as a species is devastating to our own existence on this magnificent planet.

The Last Outlaws, by Thom Hatch is a historical search to know Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  As such it is good history, but I am still fascinated by the story and the telling of the history lacked the bold strokes of a story teller and therefore was not as enjoyable as I would have liked even though any historian of the west should read it.

Natchez, is a book I picked up in Natchez (surprise) and it was filled with stories of this southern town on the banks of the Mississippi.  It survives today as an interesting town, but at one time its location on the river and at the beginning of the first great Southern Road - the Natchez Trace - made it a pivot-able point in the history of the Mississippi River region.

The New Orleans Restaurant Cookbook written in 1967 has a good compliment of recipes, but its value is in the history of the famous restaurants of this gourmet paradise.

The Explainer by Slate Magazine was neither entertaining nor informing in my opinion.

January book notes

It is really hard to go back over a years worth of reading and give the January books the same attention that the most recent books get so here is a one month set of book notes.  January is a good reading book and I hope you have had some good reading, but still got some great outdoors time.

1. Americans in Paris, Charles Glass is really outstanding history giving us insights into the very complex life in Paris when it was occupied by the Nazis.  First when the US was neutral and then when we were the enemy.  Paris is a complex city in any time, but never more so than in this period.
2. Old Man River by Paul Schneider.  This was an excellent book on the Mississippi River.  It blended old tried and true stories with personal observations and gave an excellent look at this complex geographic location called the Mississippi. 
3. The Trail to Seven Pines, Louis L'Amour.  One of four Hopalong Cassidy novels that L'Amour did.  It is well paced, captures my old hero, but with more edge and excitement and satisfied all my love of westerns.
4. Unfathomable City, Soluit and Snedeker.  Actually a combination of essays, each with a map of New Orleans looking at the layers of the old and eccentric city.  I loved the beginning half and the last chapter, but got lost in a series of essays that were too esoteric for my taste or it would have been number one on the list.  Very well written and the maps are a unique and effect support to most of the essays.
5. Dirt by David Montgomery is a look at the basic building block of all continents and life on earth.  It is the undervalued by lynchpin of our lives too, one we disregard too regularly.  We sacrificed topsoil down our rivers, substitute chemicals and artificial GMOs for the historic organic basis of life.
6. Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman follows the around the world race of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland.  It is a look at two women who do an amazing travel adventure.  The loser, as is the American tradition does not get the recognition she deserves, but in fact comes out the better in life itself.  It is a time when Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days set the standard, even though fictitious for world travel.  A very enjoyable read.
7. Madam by Cari Lynn and Kellie Martin is the story of Storyville in New Orleans.  It is a fictitious story in that the authors have to create a narrative that fits between the blank spots in the information that is available about this experiment in legalized, but controlled prostitution.  The characters are reall and the history that the novel exposes is fascinating.
8. Bull River by Robert Knott is a continuation of the Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch westerns of Robert Parker.  Good characters, the black and white west is crisscrossed by characters who are sure of their decisions, but constantly in the gray zone between good and bad.
9. Catch Me by Lisa Gardner is a very good police thriller.  It is about the thin line between police and vigilante, the dangers of on-line trolling for underage victims and gives good suspense with some real red flags for people to consider.
10. Cooperstown Confidential is the story of baseball Hall of Fame, but not the bio of those who get in, rather the politics of induction.  The choices that were made that should not have been made and the  very human aspect of HOF decisions. 
11. Red Planet Blues by Robert Sawyer was a genre buster for me.  I am not a SciFi fan, but this mix of Sci FI and detective was well done and well paced.  
12. The Persuader by Lee Childs is a Reacher Novel.  I read out of curiosity. It is first and last.  A testosterone novel.  No suspense - he is too good and he is the narrator so he has to make it.

Eighty Days - Matthew Goodman

This is the story of a race around the world by two women in 1890, Nellie Bly, reporter for the New York World comes from poverty in Pittsburgh and makes a name as an investigative reporter.  Elizabeth Bisland comes from the deep south, daughter of a plantation owner in Louisiana who suffers the displacement of the Civil War and the loss of family fortune, she goes to New Orleans to begin her writing career and ends up in New York working for Cosmopolitan Magazine.  

Bly is sent East to circle the globe and with less than 24 hours notice Bisland is sent West as a competitor of Bly.  We see the world through these two travelers and the contrast in how they see the world is fascinating.  It is a comparison between a woman who hates England and finds everything about America better than anything else in the world with her competitor embracing and falling in love with Japan and eventually moving to England.

Jules Verne is visited by Nellie Bly and it is his fictitious character's Around the World In Eighty Days race that inspires this race.  So even though they are racing each other, the women are in fact racing a fictitious person.  It does show how literature can inspire.

The story is also about the place of women and their struggle to survive.  The attitude that women belong in the home and not in the workplace was prevalent in their lifetime - it still lingers in ours - and yet when the fathers die, the daughters are often the sole support of the widowed mother and these women have to create a home and care for their families.

There is a wonderful passage in Hong Kong where Elizabeth Bisland reflects on the speed of communications now that there is the telegraph.  Today we would be upset to think we had to send Morse code and wait for a response.  This and the travel accommodations help us contrast time periods.

The trip around the world is the same year as the Massacre at Wounded Knee, it is a time of rampant racism, and terrible treatment of works who are trying to strike for living wages.  Yet in the midst of this the race consumes the American Public, makes a celebrity of one woman, and disregards the efforts of the loser.

The book follows the two women to the ends of their lives and it is a stark contrast as their personalities might have suggested from the beginning.  Who really wins, who really loses?  That is something the public decides and even today we have not learned to appreciate the efforts of those who try but do not come in first.

Madam by Cari Lynn and Kellie Martin

When the book arrived in the mail I was both intrigued and a little hesitant.  I am not in to pornographic books, overt romantic novels, or overwrought tragedies - I need not have worried, the book is excellent and I only fear that the title and the wonderful photo of the actual Mary Deubler on the cover taken by the enigmatic Bellocq may not convey what the book really offers.

Long before Nevada legalized prostitution, New Orleans had Storyville - 1898 - 1917.  It was the creation of Sidney Story, a real-life crusader who thought that the way to clean up the prostitution and depravity of New Orleans was to designate an area - the District or the Tenderloin - names he preferred.  The result was the elimination of indiscriminate cribs all throughout the town and the legalizing of a business.

Storyville's full impact is not covered in this historic novel, only its beginnings.  Later there would be terrible deeds done within the district, but in the beginning it was actually a way for women who had very little choice in how they could earn a living to find a house and an income.

In this story the authors blend a lot of truth with enough fiction to hold it together as a story.  It portrays the depth of depravity that existed and the hopeless and helpless situation that many poor women faced, the cruelty of the men and the fact that those in power, as is true today, loved to make pronouncements in the public while engaging in the very acts they said they deplored.

I found myself constantly going back to the web to research the people and places that were mentioned in the book and have a much better appreciation for the work of the authors as a result.